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I am very excited about this opportunity to share my perspectives and
experience in my BeyeNETWORK Blog. For those of you who may not have read
my articles and newsletters over the past few years, I hope you will appreciate a vendor-independent perspective on all things related to Business Performance Management (BPM). I focus on key topics organizations
should consider throughout their BPM project lifecycle, from early stage
requirements definition and justification, key measure development, vendor
selection and finally, successful deployment and rollout. Of course, market trends and vendor updates will also be part of the mix. Please stop by on a regular basis to see what's new, and to make this interactive, please share your opinions. If you have a specific question, contact me directly at cschiff@bpmpartners.com.

Craig, President and CEO of BPM Partners, is a pioneer in business performance management (BPM). Craig helped create and define the field as it evolved from business intelligence and analytic applications into BPM. He has worked with BPM and related technologies for more than 20 years, first as a founding member at IMRS/Hyperion Software (now Hyperion Solutions) and later cofounded OutlookSoft where he was President and CEO.

Craig is a frequent author on BPM topics and monthly columnist for the BeyeNETWORK. He has led several jointly produced webcasts with Business Finance Magazine including "Beyond the Hype: The Truth about BPM Vendors," the three-part vendor review entitled "BPM Xpo" and "BPM 101: Navigating the Treacherous Waters of Business Performance Management." He is a recipient of the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. BPM Partners is a vendor-independent professional services firm focused exclusively on BPM, providing expertise that helps companies successfully evaluate and deploy BPM systems. Craig can be reached at cschiff@bpmpartners.com.

November 2007 Archives

Just when I was about to blog about something other than all the BPM mergers, this comes along. Well, thankfully I think we have run out of large BPM vendors to be bought, and by now most of the companies doing the buying should have had their fill as well. Its time for everyone to settle down and digest what they bought, and then come out fighting. The purchase of Cognos by IBM combined with the other recent M&A activity has created a powerhouse field of huge performance vendors: IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle. Make no mistake about it, this is all about performance management. Business intelligence on its own would not have been as interesting to these companies. Business performance management is driving the purchase of BPM applications, as well as BI tools, as well as related applications, and even the underlying transactional systems they feed off of. That's why some of these new mega vendors, regardless of their roots, are billing themselves as performance vendors. BPM sells. Doesn't every company want to/need to improve their performance, or at least better understand what is going on? Now to the specifics of this particular transaction ...

I actually think this is great news for Cognos, its employees, its customers, and its future customers. Essentially, their already strong BI/BPM product suite is now going to be backed and distributed by a much larger company and brand, with deeper pockets, and global reach. They will be better prepared for the BPM market battle of giants that is shaping up. Also, unlike many of the other recent mergers there is little if any product overlap. Since they were not purchased by one of the large ERP vendors Cognos can continue to emphasize their independence and ability to work well with almost any underlying transactional systems. The deep business expertise of the IBM services force is a great complement to the Cognos BPM suite. The only questions I have are around Applix and IBM itself. Where does Applix and its high-performance TM1 engine fit in all of this? Also, IBM has little experience in performance management. If it relies on the experts at Cognos things should turn out well. If IBM tries to micromanage a business it doesn't fully understand, well the going may get rough.